Compelling Interest: Examining the Evidence on Racial Dynamics in Colleges and Universities

Journal of College Admission, Winter 2004 by Casteen, Laurie

Compelling Interest: Examining the Evidence on Racial Dynamics in Colleges and Universities Edited by Mitchell J. Chang, Daria Witt, James Jones, and Kenji Hakuta Stanford University Press (Palo Alto, California), March 2003 $13.97, 246 pages, paperback

The recent United States Supreme Court decisions in two landmark cases1 make a timely release date for this comprehensive and thoughtful work on affirmative action and college access. Grounded in extensive and varied research, the authors of this book provide a broad and candid look at the multitude of issues relating to college access. These issues originate in pre-school enrollment and elementary school tracking, and are linked to standardized testing and college admission practices. The book also addresses the benefits of diversity as experienced by minority and majority individuals, organizations and communities.

This work is comprised of individual and group-authored chapters, each focusing on a particular aspect of the affirmative action and college access debate. Although individual chapters are uniquely focused, each draws effectively upon the contributions of the other authors for a cohesive presentation of the issues. In addition to the main content of the volume, the appendices provide readers who lack a detailed knowledge of the history of segregation and the American Civil Rights movement with helpful resources: a thorough timeline of events, case law and legislation that have informed the debate through the years, and a glossary of important terminology associated with affirmative action and diversity discussions.

The substantive introduction connects the title of this work to former Supreme Court Justice Powell's groundbreaking (albeit solo) opinion in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, in which the Justice, applying the strict scrutiny rule, referred to the compelling interest required for a college or university to consider race as an influential factor in admission decisions. Because the compelling interest for most institutions (in addition to the redress of past and present inequality in educational access for minorities) is the desire to support a diverse student body, the authors aim to demonstrate, with social sciences research and literature, the benefits of a diverse community. Additionally, they seek to address some of the most common arguments for and against affirmative action, such as the definition of merit, the effectiveness of standardized testing and the effects of racism on minority students.

The data in the second chapter provide a comprehensive backdrop for the authors' discussion of the effects of socioeconomic status (on both an individual and school district-wide basis) on student learning outcomes in early education. It also covers issues of ability-group tracking for elementary school minority and majority students and the ways in which these statistics may relate to concerns about college access (particularly to selective institutions) in later years.

Standardized testing and the varied interpretations of merit are the focus of the third chapter. Significant research, focused on questions of predictive validity and bias in testing, is presented, as well as a call for the initiation of new studies, which might better address these questions. Perhaps the most valuable part of this section is the ensuing discussion of what constitutes merit and fairness as determined by college admission counselors. The authors also present helpful reviews of two of the most historically influential cases on the current status of affirmative action.2

The next two chapters, which focus on social psychological research on the effects of racism, and the benefits of diverse communities, respectively, include clearly outlined and well-formed arguments for multiple facets of each topic. They also cover group identity theories and racial attitudes and their effects on personal and institutional racism.

The final chapter provides a broader context for the preceding chapters and ties together the most salient points from each. Additionally the authors discuss strategies for addressing the issues of campus diversity policies and programs, and provide some thoughts on the common question of how one will be able to identify the full achievement of diversity and true equal access.

The authors of Compelling Interest present a well-reasoned and articulate series of arguments for the protection of affirmative action in college admission. They develop many and varied reasons for safeguarding college admission officers' abilities to build a diverse community of students at their institutions. The arguments are neither defensive nor anecdotal, but rational and empirically sound. Readers who firmly oppose affirmative action will likely not care for the tenor of the book; however, the common points those against affirmative action make are given voice in this book and the refutation of these points is thoughtful and cogent.

The data, however, while easily interpreted by readers with a background in educational research, might be overly complex for those unfamiliar with statistical lingo and validity testing. Nonetheless, the interpretation of the data is concise and clear, and the statistical discussion lends emphasis to the commentary. This book is a wonderful resource, not only for higher education administrators and admission personnel, but for students and citizens alike. Although Bowen and Bok (1998) arguably set the bar high for further discourse on issues of affirmative action and access, Chang et al. have met the challenge in this important and comprehensive work.